C. Kennedy Design: Overview

Designing A Better Workplace: HR Tech Stack Considerations

All the things I would consider when building an HR Tech Stack.

HR Tech Stack Considerations


Designing A Better Society: A Pandemic Communications Wish List

4 types of message that would have helped me at the start of the pandemic.

A Pandemic Communications Wish List


Designing A Better Workplace: Good Managers

Quick thoughts on one necessary part of being good manager. (Spoiler: It's a desire to manage people.)

A Good Manager Wants To Manage People


Task Queueing with Microsoft Planner and To Do

This is a quick look at how I use Microsoft Planner and Microsoft To Do to create a task queueing system.

With this queueing system, I can quickly make sense of what task I want to do, next.

Task Queueing with Microsoft Planner and To Do


Events/Invitation Manager on Android
I spend heaps of time considering how to create rad gatherings. The most important part of an excellent gathering is the people and this solution helps me keep track of the people.

2018Q1-image2-1

I invite my friends to events one email, one text, one conversation at a time. It's a useful method in many ways, but it's difficult to track whom I've invited and how they've responded: Marcy is a maybe; no reply from Mary; Daphnie wants to bring drinks. I needed help and, when I couldn't find a solution that suited my needs, I built my own.

After wireframing the software and creating a database structure, I started coding and got a very basic version of the software on my phone in 2018Q3. Since then I've been using the app and adding elements based on the pain points of my personal, day-to-day usage.

events20181111-1

I'm developing the Events/Invitation Manager software in Android Studio (Ubuntu), using Flutter and Dart.

Progress can be tracked via the Event Planner tag.


Using Python to Create Documents With Shared Content
At the office, I maintain the commission and bonus plans for our sales team. While each one is unique, most of the content is shared across most of the documents. Instead of maintaining separate Word docs, I decided to build the plans in Python with Python-docx. Now there is a single repository for content and the plans are generated dynamically.

VS Code Python Screenshot

I created a simplified, public facing version of the project using a Chromebook, Python 2.7.13, Python-docx-0.8.10, and, Visual Studio Code. The sample code and more information can be found here: Using Python and Python-Docx to build Word Docs


Spotify Alarm Clock for Raspberry Pi
In an effort to make my mornings more pleasant, I took a Raspberry Pi and turned it into an alarm clock that played music from Spotify.

Raspberry Pi image

I developed the Spotify Alarm Clock for Raspberry Pi with Mopidy, mpc, Etcher, and Raspbian.

This project is inactive; previous progress can be tracked via the alarm clock tag.


Train Finding Alexa Skill
To make my morning commute easier, I created an Alexa skill that grabs real-time train data and tells me when my next three trains are due to arrive at my station.

A post shared by C. Kennedy Design (@ckdsn) on

I developed the Train Finding Alexa Skill with Node.js, Amazon Web Services, and Amazon's Developer Console.

This project is inactive; previous progress can be tracked via the Train Finder tag.


Manually Installing Ghost
The software behind CKDSN.com is an open source publishing platform called Ghost. Once upon a time I decided to rebuild the site from scratch.

Ghost Install Picture

This project is inactive; old instructions can be found here: Manually Installing Ghost


Myers-Briggs Database on Android
As a warm up for the event tracking/invitation managing software above, I created a database that keeps track of my friends' Myers-Briggs type.

Drag-and-Drop and Drop-Down List sort examples

I developed the Myers-Briggs Database software in Android Studio using Java.

Examples of app in portrait and landscape orientation

This project is inactive; previous progress can be tracked via the What's Your Type tag.